


Rise and shine

by EM8T



Category: Metro 2033 & Related Fandoms
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, F/F, Ficlet, Gen, Other characters mentioned - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-07 10:43:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 490
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18619015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EM8T/pseuds/EM8T
Summary: After Novosibirsk-Moving through this landscape so fast feels like a dream, a shard of a completely different life from their own.





	Rise and shine

They should have enough blood.

At least that is what Katya is saying. “That’s enough Stephan. That’s enough Damir.” Step aside, take rest. Sleep until your body recovers lifeblood which it has lost.  
Tokarev, Sam, Yermak, Idiot, Duke, Alyosha. They are doing their part as everyone knows what happens if Katya is wrong. 

If it is not enough.

If.

Anna has thought of herself in terms of layers. Moscow told her that she was a realist. Secretly though, she had held silent hope for something better than an old decaying city. Something more, something like air which anyone would be able to breathe without fear. 

But there was another layer, the truth: A gun in hand and pessimism which had burrowed so deep that she had hardly felt anything. Anything at all, because why should she give a damn when the world didn’t?

Then Artyom arrived.

Little hopping rabbit. 

Annoying.

During those first moments of knowing her future husband Anna had wondered, how the man had survived to adulthood with such stupid naivety. How he had survived at all.

Now he would.

Anna knows this.

He would not.

-

Train sways as it blows through its slightly crooked tracks. It is miracle worthy of some higher power that the way is open at all. Moving through this landscape so fast feels like a dream, a shard of a completely different life from their own. It kind of is.

In a small compartment, IV line moves in the rhythm of the train. Flickering light sweeps through white curtains and touches a sickly face.

There are murmurs in the kitchen and silence at the helm.

They know funeral dirges but won’t sing one.

-

Artyom does not become conscious. He does wake sometimes, opens his eyes only to close them before Anna can tell a single “I love you” or “Don’t leave me.” It seems that words are scared to follow the most important one: the name of Anna’s husband. 

She can hold him, kiss his temple. She can listen to his breath and feel the rise of his chest under her hand. That should be enough.

It is.

It will be.

-

They arrive at crossroads. Until now they have been running on fumes, on partial thoughts where to go. Is the destination still Vladivostok? Yes, no, maybe. You could ask them, and the answer would vary many times more than there are people on this train.

Waiting seems to be the only real option. 

So they do.

Hesitant, cautious steps to outside are taken. Perimeters are secured and scouts are sent ahead. It’s easy to be under the moonlit sky. 

Artyom, though, wanders only inside the train. His fingertips trail the walls and print smudges at the windows. He is absentminded and quiet.

Mere shadow.

He can still imagine walls of the tunnels around this warm little cabin. 

From the distance, he can hear Miller.

-

By the morning the train will move again.


End file.
